“That sounds good. If you’ll give me your number, I can text you if the time is different.”
He punches some numbers into his phone and I hear mine buzz an alert a few seconds later. He doesn’t look at me again as I reach for my phone but addresses Cash instead.
“Can I borrow your car again?”
“Can you drop us back at the club?”
“Yes.”
“You’ll be okay the rest of the afternoon?” Olivia asks me.
“Of course. I’m going to go through my closet for a dress and then give myself a spa day, I think. You know, decompress before I have to deal with Daddy and all his cronies.”
Olivia doesn’t look entirely convinced. “If you’re sure . . .”
“I’m positive. You two go. Enjoy your day.”
“I’ll be back here to stay tonight.”
“Olivia,” Cash begins in warning.
She tosses him a withering look, and he sighs and turns away, shaking his head.
“We’ll be back here tonight. I don’t want you staying by yourself until this is over.”
“I told you I’d stay,” Nash growls from his spot near the front door. He didn’t move very far into the room. “Don’t you people listen?”
“See?” Cash says to Olivia.
Olivia turns her skeptical gaze to me. “That’s up to Marissa.”
A quiver works its way through the lowest part of my stomach when I think of the way Nash woke this morning. Of course, he’ll likely sleep in Olivia’s bed if they aren’t in it.
Likely . . .
“That’s fine. We’ll be fine. I’m sure no one would dare come through that door with him in the house.”
I say it in jest, but it’s probably ninety percent true. Only the scariest of criminals might not give Nash a second thought. Of course, those are the ones we’re all worried about.
“Damn straight,” Nash murmurs from his spot.
I grin at Olivia when she rolls her eyes. “See?”
“Well, I’ll check back in with you later, anyway. I won’t be working a shift. I’ve got some homework I need to get done, so . . .”
“Please stop worrying about me,” I plead earnestly. The more compassion and kindness she shows me, the worse I feel about the way I’ve always treated her. And I already feel like a steaming pile of poo. “You’ve got your own troubles to deal with. And your own happiness to bask in. I’ll be fine. I promise.”
Her smile is reluctant, but it comes. And I feel better for having helped put it there. It feels good to be this person, this pleasant, thoughtful person rather than the scathing bitch I was before. The girl no one really wanted to be around unless they had something to gain from it.
“Yeah, we have basking to do,” Cash reiterates huskily as he pulls Olivia to her feet and into his arms. He nuzzles her throat and she giggles, wrapping her arms around his neck.
“Okay, okay.”
“Good. It’s all worked out then. Let’s go,” Cash says, taking Olivia by the hand and towing her toward the door. As she passes me, she impulsively bends down and winds one arm around my shoulders, hugging me to her.
“I’m glad you’re back,” she whispers in my ear, giving me a light squeeze. I reach up to return her hug, feeling the warmth of her personality more than ever.
And to think, if it weren’t for a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, I could’ve gone the rest of my life missing out on someone as wonderful as Liv. That would’ve been the biggest tragedy of all.
“I am, too,” I whisper back. From the couch, I watch the trio leave. The last thing I see is the black pools of Nash’s eyes when they meet mine as he’s shutting the door.
I feel the complex heat of them long after he’s gone.
ELEVEN
Nash
I thought when I finally got to come out of hiding, when I finally got to live, I’d never have a reason to go back. Ever. To any part of the life I’ve had for these last seven years.
But I was wrong.
Of course, I never imagined that Dad would want us to give up the fight, that he’d be content to rot in prison and let Mom’s killer go free. But then again, he’s known who killed her all along.
My stomach clenches at the thought of Duffy. My fingers ache with the remembered desire to wrap my hands around his throat and look him in the eye as I squeeze the life out of him.
But Duffy’s just one man. Even though he’s technically the one who killed my mother with that bomb, whether he intended to or not, he’s just one of several who were ultimately behind Mom’s death and all the hell that followed. My thirst for revenge won’t be satisfied until they’re all dead or in prison. Maybe Dad knows that. Maybe that’s why he wants us to give it up. Maybe it’s a lifelong pursuit, trying to get to the bottom. Or the top, rather.
Either way, it doesn’t matter. I’m not giving it up. Not ever. I can’t. It would kill too much of me, of who I was and who I am, to let it go. So I’ll see it through. No matter what it takes or how long I have to fight, I’ll see it through.
After dropping Cash and Olivia back at Dual, I drive the quick trip across town to the train station. I stopped there on my way into town and got myself a locker. Having no roots to speak of makes it a little more difficult to keep important things safe. Even some people with roots choose locations such as these to keep valuable things out of harm’s way. Like Dad, for instance. It was at this very train station that he’d stashed his bag of goodies.
My smile is wry and a little hostile when I think to myself that it’s probably a good thing only one of us boys followed so closely in Dad’s footsteps. I just always assumed if either of us turned out to be a criminal or turned out to possess criminal tendencies, it would be Cash. I think everyone assumed that. In a way, I guess Nash really did die the day of the explosion. The guy he was and the guy he would’ve grown to be are dead. Both of them. Gone forever. The question is: Who am I? Who rose to take their place?
Pushing those troubling thoughts aside, I find a place to park in the lot outside the station. Glancing casually over my shoulder, a habit I doubt I’ll ever break, I make my way into the building and over to the small stand of lockers to the left. I’d picked a locker number I’d remember easily. Number four thirteen. Mom’s birthday. April thirteenth.